Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 begins as if in mid-thought, without the kind of thesis statement Rachmaninoff would later establish in Piano Concerto No. 2 and Symphony No. 2, which resurrected his career. But the earmarks of genius are there — the effusive melodious idiom, the cinematic sweep and the raw power, driven home as Solzhenitsyn slashed the air like a knife blade in a fierce coda.